Reconnecting
by eighteen inches
Summary: In the midst of death and sorrow, something will finally heal.


Reconnecting

The woman with the long blonde hair stayed to the back, away from everyone else. She didn't want any of them to see her. She was only looking for one person, but that person probably didn't even want to see her. Though, of course, she couldn't stay away. Not at a time like this. She was still her sister after all.

_I'm one of the few family members she has left_, she thought. Those were the words that forced her to show up here. She wanted to make amends, even if they were decades too late. It wouldn't matter now anyway, but she still had to try.

She looked around – at the faces that surrounded the area – and searched for the one that she was looking for. That might be harder than she thought. Some were still sitting and talking and others were up and walking around.

_If I were Andy where would I be? _she asked herself, trying to think like her sister for a moment. And then it hit her. The one place that she could mourn her loss in peace.

She took off in the direction of the grave that had been covered just moments ago. She walked at a quick pace; in the hope she would find her sister before it was too late. She walked around the crowd of people gathered here and there and made her way towards the graves.

She soon heard the sound of tears – and stumbled across the weeping woman with long, dark brown curls who knelt at the edge of a grave. The sound of her footsteps echoed around her, so it was natural the woman at the grave glanced behind her.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Narcissa spoke, her voice filled with more emotion than she thought was possible.

The woman at the grave stood and turned around to face the sister that she hasn't seen in years. "What?" she asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

Narcissa stared into her sister's eyes. The eyes that she used to see every day when they were kids, the eyes that could make everything better if something was wrong. The eyes that she hadn't seen since that terrible day when Andromeda left.

"I'm sorry for your daug—"Narcissa stopped herself. "Nymphadora and for what happened to Ted and everything else that's happened to you and between us."

Andromeda stared on at her younger sister, but said nothing.

"I know it probably doesn't mean anything right now," Narcissa said. "But I really am sorry…I know I sided with Bellatrix and eventually the dark side, and how I just stopped talking to you, but Bellatrix tricked me."

"I feel stupid now that I think back on it," she continued, with regret. "How I believed what Bellatrix said. I was too easily influenced because of her. I was such a stupid sixteen year old...I shouldn't have believed it but I did. She told me you left because you didn't care, but it doesn't even matter anymore. Nothing really does."

"That's not why I left," Andromeda stated.

"I know that now," Narcissa told her.

"I just couldn't be in that house any longer," Andromeda said. "Not if I wanted to be with Ted…I scarified my family for the man that I loved. But that _doesn't_ mean that I stopped caring about you, or stopped loving you…You were still my little sister, and I shouldn't have left like I did."

"It doesn't matter now, it's in the past," Narcissa stated.

"It does matter," Andromeda countered. "Because that was the start of what caused us to grow apart."

"That was all Bellatrix," Narcissa replied. "After you left, I cried myself to sleep sometimes, thinking that it was my fault. Bellatrix did everything in her power to truly make me believe that; saying that you never cared. She said, if you did care, you would have stayed."

"You were barely an adult when I left," Andromeda's voice was barely a whisper.

"But Bellatrix isn't alive anymore to continue to influence me," Narcissa went on. "I don't have to worry about her anymore, and neither do you."

"Death was too good for her," Andromeda said, more to herself than Narcissa. The anger in her voice was easy to hear. "But she did get what she deserved in the end." She closed her eyes for a moment before opening and speaking to Narcissa again. "What brought you here?"

"I had to come – to try and make amends with the only sister I have left," Narcissa told her. She could feel tears forming at the edges of her eyes. "Even though it's far too late, I just couldn't live with it any longer. I should have done this before now. It's my fault that our relationship is what it is."

"It is too late," Andromeda stated. She looked straight into Narcissa's eyes as she spoke. Narcissa could feel the tears starting to fall now.

"But it's better late, than never," Andromeda added with a small smile. She walked away from the front of the grave and towards her sister, who was just letting the tears fall, matching Andromeda's.

"What?" Narcissa asked, as if she hadn't heard her sister.

"Better late than never," Andromeda said again, throwing her arms around her younger sister and pulling her into a hug.

* * *

Narcissa stood in front of a fireplace later that day, staring at the pictures that stood along the top, which seemed to tell a story. All of them held different pictures, some of Andromeda and Ted. Some that had another girl in them. Each time, she had a different hair length, style and color.

Andromeda walked in her living room from the kitchen, holding two cups of tea and handed one to Narcissa. "That's Nymphadora, after she was born," she said, pointing to the first picture. "Her hair started changing colors as soon as her first breath and it didn't stop until her last – as you can see from the rest of them."

Narcissa's glaze went back to the row of pictures on the mantel. Taking them in, she saw what Andromeda was talking about.

"She was constantly changing her hair and her appearance," Andromeda went on. "It was a rare day that she wore her natural hair or appearance…although, she did keep the heart shaped face; one of the things that always reminded me of you whenever I looked at her."

Andromeda went on talking about each picture in turn, one by one. It was a while before Narcissa caught on to what she was doing. Andromeda was trying to catch Narcissa up on the years that they'd lost.

_It's nice to actually be a part of my sister's life again,_ Narcissa thought. _Of course, I shouldn't have even left. _

With everything that's happened to them and not talking to each other, Narcissa was glad that she could have this chance at a second chance and reconnect with her long lost sister.

* * *

AN: This is written for the 'Honeydukes Competition,' for Chocolate Frogs, the "Diagon Alley Challenge,' for Second Hand Shop, the 'Creatures of Hogwarts Challenge,' for Pygmy Puff and the "School Subjects Competition," for 'History of Magic,"

I've always seen Narcissa as the other good one. I've always believed that Narcissa was influenced too much by Bellatrix just because she was the youngest out of the bunch and I do feel like she would have felt remorseful over everything that happened between her and Andromeda.

Thanks to my lovely beta, Ashley, for beta reading this(:

Disclaimer: I think we've established that I don't own anything.

AN: I really hoped you liked it :)

Review please! :D


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